Search This Blog

Book Review: Unsung By Anita Pratap & Mahesh Bhat

Changla artificial glacier: The highest watershed project in the world. It feeds several villages down stream in Ladakh. (Photograph By Mahesh Bhat)

In the raucous market place (read the globalized world), glam exteriority has encroached upon our consciousness and conquered every available space- be it the media, our sartorial sense, our attitudes, purchasing habits, culture etc.. . As a consequence the traditional Gandhian values, which were not sexy enough in the first place, have slowly been obliterated from our perception of what holds good. Who frankly has the time for concepts like selfless giving shorn of fame and media attention? It is so passé. So the book “Unsung” by journalist Anita Pratap and photographer Mahesh Bhat comes as a big surprise. The duo has chosen to capture the lives not of famous actors or cricketers but of ordinary people from different parts of the country. These unknown, “unsung” people have selflessly given of their time, energy and their lives to the happiness of others.

The story of Subhashini Mistry, a vegetable seller from Hanspukur, near Kolkata, who saved small amounts of money for twenty weary years to start a hospital for the poor, is heart rending and it ceaselessly nags you for your selfish stylish ways. Subhashini was married off at the age of twelve to Sadhan, an agriculture worker. He earned just Rs. 200 and with four children the couple struggled to make ends meet. In 1971, Sadhan was rushed to the Government hospital in Tollygunge, Kolkata for gastro enteritis. But the nurses and doctors refused to treat him because he was poor and he died as a result. A familiar story right? The story did not end with her husband’s death. Subhashini wowed she would build a hospital for the poor. And despite being dirt poor with four hungry children, she saved small amounts of money- Rs.100, Rs.50 towards her dream. Twenty years later she bought a plot and put up a shed and begged doctors to volunteer their service. Now after years of knocking on doors, the hospital has grown into a two- storied building which is absolutely free for the poor. She says, “What’s the use of material things like bangles and saris. We cant take them with us when we die. But the happy faces of the cured poor people have given me such joy and meaning in this life.”

George Pulikutiyil: "My mission is to make justice administration a mass movement. Protection of human rights should be part of people's culture." (Photograph by Mahesh Bhat)

Closer home the book focuses on George Pulikuthiyil in Thrissur. George Pulikuthiyil was formerly a priest but the priestly life of listening to the usual ritualistic confessions bored him and he felt “distanced from the everyday struggles of the ordinary people whom he yearned to serve.” So he gave up priesthood and looked without the walls of the church to find God and he took up a new cause to defend the defenceless. He studied law and started Jananeethi, an NGO to provide justice for the poor. Through Jananeethi, he fought for the rights of all sections of society, irrespective of caste, class and creed. He says, “My mission is to make justice administration a mass movement. Protection of human rights should be part of a people’s culture.”

Changla artificial glacier

The book even journeys to the cold hazardous terrains of Ladakh to showcase a man who makes artificial glaciers. If you thought “only God made glaciers” you are dead wrong because seventy-one year old Chewang Norphel makes glaciers to provide water for the water starved region of Ladakh. “Melting snows generate millions of gallons of water but it goes waste because it comes too late to Ladakh.” Cultivation in Ladakh is limited to a short season of spring and early summer but Ladakh receives water only in June and nothing grew in Ladakh till Norphel came up with his plan.

The book showcases people like Norphel and Pulikuthiyil- ordinary people with extraordinary ideas and a will to carry it through. Says Anita Pratap, who travelled to the four corners of the country to research these ordinary heroes, “Mahesh and I have chosen people who have dedicated their whole lives to the service of others. And we have ensured that there is a fair representation of geographical, religious and different causes in the book. What is interesting is that many of these people spoke about Gandhiji and his book “My story of experiments with truth.” I feel the book should be introduced to students as compulsory reading material. It took us three years to put Unsung together and it has been worth the effort.”

“Unsung” is a slim book, easy to read and the photographs by Mahesh Bhat in stark black and white are powerful and create the right tone. It is an inspiring read for both adults and adolescents. The proceeds of the sales go to the untiring efforts of these Unsung Heroes.

Popular posts from this blog

Free masonry- the 'spiritual society' of sacred brotherhood with its origins in antiquity has always been shrouded in mystery. Their initiation rites, rituals, symbolisms, secret signs and code of conduct have further enhanced the aura of mysteriousness. Is Free Masonry a remnant of an ancient religion that worshipped the Sun or is it just an exclusive, elitist boy's club that indulges in secret charity missions?In 1961 the Grand Lodge of India, which is an off -shoot of the Grand Lodges of Scotland, England and Ireland was constituted. The Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of India Mr.Arun Chintopanth was recently here in Kochi to preside over the meeting of the Regional Grand Lodge of Southern India. In an exclusive interview with the Grand Master sought to demystify the Masonic Lodge. Arun Chintopanth in full regalia. Dont miss the apron.What is Free Masonry? It is not a service organisation. It is not a religious group. It is not a mutual benefit society but it is a combi…

Suryanelli: The place of no sun. Roofs weighed down by rock bags to keep the wind from blowing them away Off the Kerala state highway that connect the
small, brash towns giddy with foreign remittances, sits an unassuming, modest
home that goes by the name: Lovedale. A septuagenarian couple, a retired postmaster
and a retired nurse, live here with their younger daughter and, a ghoulish past
that continues to taunt every waking moment of their lives. The 33-year-old daughter
smiles shyly revealing an innocence frozen in time. 17 years ago, the daughter,
then a 16-year-old girl, had left home wearing a skirt and a blouse to go to
school and returned sexually violated and terribly traumatized: her
transformation from a carefree school girl to a bloated individual was violently shocking.
The girl had been kept captive, fed sedatives and alcohol, traded for sex and
raped by 42 men in a span of 40 days in the months of January and February 1996.
The family’s tryst with rapists, the police, …

I am 51 years old. And I would like to continue to be a sex worker.” This is how the candid and defiant opening statement in Nalini Jameela’s autobiography in Malayalam, Oru Lymgika-thozhilaliyude Atmakadha, goes. It at once throws a challenge at society’s double standards — harsh on prostitutes and soft on the clients. Nalini Jameela, who is the coordinator of the Kerala Sex Workers’ Forum, reveals her sordid story with no trace of compunction. Nalini was a 24-year-old widow when she entered the profession to feed her two children. At that time she did not think about the repercussions of her act. She writes, “I was earning Rs 4.50 at a tile factory near Trissur. My mother-in-law served me with an ultimatum to either give her five rupees a day to look after my children or leave the house. I recounted my woes to a friend, who introduced me to Rosechechi. Rosechechi promised me Rs 50 if I spent time with a man. The first thought that came to my mind was that my children would be looked…